WASHINGTON — Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney on Thursday channelled his inner Stephen Harper in a speech touting the Keystone XL pipeline as a "no-brainer," while accusing President Barack Obama of failing to understand the value of Canadian oil to the U.S. economy.

But Obama, seeking to insulate himself from Republican attacks on energy as the fall election approaches, fired back with claims he's done plenty to boost U.S. access to oil from Alberta.

"When someone says we want to bring in a pipeline that's going to create tens of thousands of jobs to bring oil from Canada, how in the world could you say no?" Romney told an audience in North Dakota, a booming oil state that holds its presidential caucuses on March 6.

"This is a president who does not understand energy. He is the problem. He is not the solution."

Obama denied Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.'s application for a presidential permit to build the 2,700-kilometre Keystone XL pipeline in January, after Congress passed legislation requiring him to make a decision before his administration's planned 2013 timetable.

Romney said the pipeline's approval should have been a "no brainer," echoing language Prime Minister Stephen Harper used in an address to a New York audience last fall.

The former Massachusetts governor delivered his message in a state with a direct stake in seeing the Keystone XL pipeline approved. North Dakota is in the midst of a historic oil boom amid rapid development of its Bakken shale oilfields.

The state's unemployment rate is the lowest in the U.S. — at 3.3 per cent — and communities are struggling to keep pace with the rate of population growth.

Last year, TransCanada announced the Keystone XL pipeline would ship oil from Bakken fields in North Dakota and Montana in addition to carrying oilsands crude from Hardisty, Alta.

TransCanada's plan envisioned shipping up to 65,000 barrels of oil per day from an "on ramp" to Keystone XL at Baker, Mont.

Obama's political messaging on Keystone XL has become more nuanced as Romney and other GOP presidential candidates seek to exploit his denial of the pipeline.

Speaking Thursday in New Hampshire, Obama said: "It's a fact that we've approved dozens of new pipelines, including from Canada."

Obama's administration issued a presidential permit in August 2009 for Calgary-based Enbridge to build the 1,600-kilometre Alberta Clipper pipeline, which ships 450,000 barrels of oil per day from Hardisty to Superior, Wis.

The U.S. president also reminded voters of the announcement by the White House on Monday it will support TransCanada's new plan to build the southernmost leg of the Keystone XL pipeline as a stand-alone project that does not require special permitting to cross the Canada-U.S. border. The new Gulf Coast Project will run from an oil hub in Cushing, Okla., to Port Arthur, Texas.

"There are no short-term silver bullets when it comes to gas prices," Obama said.

But "we'll do whatever we can to help speed the construction" of TransCanada's project because it will relieve a "bottleneck of oil" in the U.S. Midwest.

Republicans contend Keystone XL would help lower U.S. gas prices over the long term by reducing U.S. reliance on overseas oil — a claim disputed by pipeline opponents and some energy consultants.

Obama, in his speech, said he is following an "all-of-the-above" approach to energy independence that focuses on increasing safe domestic oil and gas production as well as increased investment in alternative energy sources like wind and solar.

At one point, the president held up a chart showing a steady decline in U.S. dependence on foreign oil during his administration.

"America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That's a fact," Obama said.

Romney, for his part, said the boom in U.S. oil production had little to do with policies put in place by Obama.

He credited private sector investments in technologies like hydraulic fracturing — or 'fracking' — that has allowed greater production from sources like the Bakken shale oil formation.

"(Obama) doesn't get credit for the increase; he instead has tried to slow the growth of oil and gas production in this country," Romney said.

"So far from taking credit, he should be hanging his head."

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